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Sunday, June 22, 2014

Chains of Wool

(My apologies to Aretha, but once this post title got in my head, I couldn't not use it.)

I have spent the past few days working on finishing up my latest Fat Cat Knits shipment. After I finished up the second bobbin of singles, I started plying the first one. The plying method I'm using for these two skeins is chain plying, sometimes also called Navajo plying. This method uses one bobbin of singles to create a faux three-ply yarn; essentially, you create long loops with the singles (like a single crochet chain) and add twist. The result is what looks like three plies but is actually only one in the sense that it's all the same strand of yarn.

I plied the Vintage bobbin first, as those were the first singles I finished. The singles themselves were very fine, so even the plied yarn was thin when it first came off the bobbin. Here's what it looked like on the niddy noddy at about 24 wraps per inch (solidly in the lace category):

Of course, this is Polwarth, and I was expecting it to poof up significantly in the finishing process. I skeined it up and washed it yesterday morning, and it was dry by the time I got up today. It's now roughly 16 wpi and about 262.5 yards long -- not bad for 2.5 oz.!

It's soft and squishy and wonderful, just as I'd expect Polwarth yarn to be. My hope is to finish plying up the second skein this evening, as I started it yesterday.

I must admit that I'm going to be a little sad when these two skeins are done. I really loved this shipment. But there will be another one coming next month, on top of which I have three other braids of FCK fiber that I'm planning to spin during the Tour de Fleece, so I'm sure there is lots of spinning fun still to be had.